Good day,
I stumbled into a consignment shop that had the silver filigree ship in the pictures for sale. I purchased the ship and on examination, cannot find any hallmarks etc.....I am quite sure however, it is sterling.
On searching the internet, I am unable to find any examples of a piece this size, or this style from any of the "usual suspects" (Portugal, Malta, Spain and Italy.) I am quite certain it is not of Arabic or Indian manufacture as it just seems too finely wrought, and does not contain any Kufic script (that I can see).
The ship is in a glass case, and the glass is well bound with cloth strips, there is paper on the underside of the base that definitely appears to be from Europe
The ship rests on blue sateen, pleated to represent waves. The ship itself is 9" from the tip of the bowsprit to the end of the flag on the stern, hull from stem to stern is 4.5" and height at the main mast is 5", The filigree work is quite fine and appears to be all of wire, no granules that I can detect, a previous owner inserted some common straight pins in the filigree "waves" to keep the ship from tipping, and distorted the filigree in two small places, but barely noticeable, and small insurance to keep the ship from coming off the base and sustaining damage. Overall everything is in good condition, there is some minor damage to the ship, probably from being tipped, nothing that cannot be easily rectified, however I didn't want to do anything, including remove tarnish, until I know what I have here.
I am most interested in finding out more about this piece, as I said, I was unable to find any references to a filigree ship of this style (I believe it is a Schooner, however it is way out of proportion) or of this size and am most curious to see if my little ship is an unusual "treasure".
